Drilling the Arctic Refuge Doesn’t Belong in the Budget

The Senate and the House have both included provisions to open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in their draft budgets.

October 4, 2017

Lindsay Bourgoine

On October 3, the Senate released its draft budget. And, like every bill these days, it included a somewhat random provision: open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) up for drilling.

Their goal? To drill our public lands to offset the $1.5 TRILLION in debt the budget proposal creates. No one knows how much oil lies in ANWR, but the most optimistic estimate is that revenue from drilling could only make up .07% of this budget’s losses.

Drilling our public lands for fossil fuels that will only emit MORE greenhouse gases is no way to balance a budget. It’s important to protect the places we play– not just for access and recreation– but for the climate, too.

This photo is of POW Riders Alliance pros Kit DesLauriers and Hilaree O’Neill exploring the Arctic Refuge. They both strongly believe in protecting ANWR from short term economic gain. Want to read their perspectives? They have both recently published op-eds on the topic: read Kit’s here and read Hilaree’s here. Join us and send a note to your senator today!